1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a support apparatus and more particularly to such a support apparatus which is operable to afford additional support for children who are too large for infant car seats, but not sufficiently developed to be able comfortably and safely to rely exclusively upon the support afforded by conventional vehicle seats and their associated seat belt assemblies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Considerable technological effort has been devoted to the development of infant safety seats for use in vehicles securely to retain and otherwise to protect infants traveling in the vehicles from injury. However, the transition from infancy to childhood has not seen a concomitant focus of attention. This fact is borne out by infant and child mortality tables which reveal that often an infant is more likely to survive a vehicular accident than is a child of toddler age or older. The reasons for this disparity are both biological and sociological.
An infant is completely incapable of caring for itself and, therefore, the use of an auxiliary support system is absolutely essential where infants are transported in vehicles of a variety of types. However, those infant safety seats which have been developed are clearly limited as to the size of the infant or child which they are capable of receiving. Accordingly, shortly after infancy the child out grows the capacity of the infant safety seat and so must utilize the conventional adult sized seat and the seat belt assembly thereof.
While children are fully capable of being strapped into the adult seat using the conventional seat belt assembly, a myriad of difficulties are presented thereby which continue until the child is much older. Since the child is of small size, he or she is incapable of seeing out the windows when so seated in the adult sized seat. The natural curiosity of children ensures that they immediately want to free themselves from the limitation presented by the seat belt assembly so that they are able to see out of the vehicle through the windows. Similarly, active children instinctively resist the lack of mobility presented by such restraint. Parents presented with a resistance to such restrain in the form of an emotional outpouring, frequently give in and free the child to roam around in the vehicle. The hazard in this dereliction of parental duty is all too apparent as revealed by child mortality tables.
Conversely, for those children who are kept restrained by dutiful parents, the boredom associated with the lack of visibility and mobility together with the motion of the vehicle frequently causes such children to fall asleep. Where the only means of restraint is the seat belt assembly, the child typically slumps forward or to the side in a manner which is both uncomfortable and unsafe in the event of an accident. Furthermore, due to their small size, such children may actually slip from beneath the seat belt and the parent, due to the obligations of operating the vehicle, may be unable to rectify the situation.
Therefore, it has long been known that is would be desirable to have a support apparatus which is particularly well suited to the protection of small children beyond the age of infancy operable to retain the child in a safe and protected attitude during transport in the vehicle, whether the child is awake or asleep, and which so operates in a manner which is both entertaining to the child as well as comforting.